Mistakes cost Giants dearly in loss to Commanders | Blue Rush

all right let's do some Monday morning quarterbacking on the Giants 21 to 18 loss to the commanders on Sunday with our New York Post Giants beat Rider Paul Schwarz Paul whoever wrote the NFL script when they're talking about the Giants AB I absolutely hate that person three offensive touchdowns a hurt kicker a dropped ball on fourth down and a loss on a walk-off field goal why do the football guyss hate the Giants so much Paul you know what Brandon you can say that right but the Giants got to start loving themselves more you know what I'm saying I mean they got to start doing smarter better things to help themselves cuz yeah there was some things that were unlucky in this game but I think a lot of it is um you know luck is the red residue of design right and the Giants design at times is lacking so you know everything's got to get tighter now it's got to get tighter you have to and I'm not saying the players and the coaches have to get tighter but the coaching and the playing has to get tighter because um um you know the the the the boat's not not uh taking on water here but it's it's starting to uh starting to get a little treacherous out there and I can't swim that well Paul uh let's talk about some of the coaching because obviously there's a lot of people talking about Coach DA's decision to go with graham GNA he gets injured on with opening kickoff the Giants are without a kicker the entire game here's coach dable uh when the Press was talking to him then we're going to get your thoughts on that uh Paul you reasoning only yeah cuz we thought ground would be okay we got Hur chasing down a a hamstring he didn't hurt his groin he heard his hamstring Bri are you saying that you can't hurt your hamstring running with a favoring that I'm not a doctor isn't that part of the deal that you have to you know that it is a risk he you had the same thing last year with him like he came in with an injury you're taking a risk that it could get reinjured why not have I mean anybody can get injured Jordan so again again he was chasing he was I got you he was chasing a kickoff return he pulled his hamstring not making excuses was your design whose decision was to yeah we thought he was we thought he was good we thought he was good yeah all the decisions that are made or M I'm not a doctor Paul uh you were right there you were amongst the beat reporters and beat writers asking coach D what was your what was your takeaway from that exchange yeah my question right after that that that clip came off to dble was you know when did you decide that that Jamie Gillan was incapable of kicking extra points or field goals and he said well he missed the first extra point and I said well at that point did you think he said no I just thought that the two-point plays that we had gave us a better chance of success than Jamie going out and kicking okay so here's my take on it overall Brandon the overarching take is that this happened last year in the Saints game Graham GNA comes in on Saturday and says my groin feels tight or whatever he said about his groin okay and they said okay um we're going to check you out we'll put you on the injury list which they did on Saturday and that sent up a red flag in my head okay what are they going to do with kicker here but he does not have an injury designation that means he's not doubtful or questionable that means the Giants have no thoughts that he is not going to play it is just for full disclosure you have to disclose that he has an injury going into the game okay so my thought is now I'm going to watch him in warm-ups he's kicking some field goals he kicks a couple of 50 yarders he looks fine then he goes back in okay what's there a problem then he comes back out Graham told us um after the game well he went back in to get his his groin wrapped but he came back out he felt his warmup was fine so the medical people tell D he's okay Graham says I'm okay I go out there and kick 50 yard field goals I'm okay fine um but in my mind I'm thinking it's a 37 year old kicker who's got a groin issue um what is my backup plan here okay if the backup plan is Jamie Gillan fine we saw him kick a 40 yard field goal last year if the backup plan is we're just going to go for two-point conver conversions that's not a good plan so they had you know um June mami I'm not sure how you say his last name on the practice squad you could sign a veteran kicker my thought is you should have two kickers up active among the 46 for the game just in case so what happens you know I'm like I'm not a doctor either he's got a sore groin um the first kickoff goes to the two yard line the guy runs it back for a touchdown Graham GNA is in Chase now that is not a good recipe for any 37y old kicker to be running full speed down the sideline after the guy Graham doesn't know that there's a flag down the other end this whole thing is is for not the play is coming back so does he pull the hamstring because he's 37 and he's running full tilt on the first play of the game or does he pull the hamstring because maybe he's got a groin issue I don't know but have put themselves in a bad situation and I don't know why dble was supposed so spooked when AO had 185 early in the fourth quarter try the extra point that gives you a four-point lead against a quarterback who has not been able to put the ball in the end zone he was spooked and I think ego got in the way there a little bit Brandon I have two-point plays that I think are really good well the team could have picked him up by converting one of the two two-point plays and they did not missed extra point two failed twoo conversions five squandered points in a game you lose by three do the ma yeah he it's one of those things where it's like all right guys here's the situation I'm putting it on you guys I know I've got the play calls I know we me and uh uh CFA have the right calls against whatever scheme we think they're going to run on these on these two-point calls you got to help me out here you got to play ball with your boy you got to catch that ball uh uh Darius Slayton like it's it's if you put it on the players I know everyone's going to jump on the coaching when it comes to that but it's something where a coach is like hey guys I need you to make me right on this one we're all together on this we're as a team we're down our kicker we need to go for two we have to convert on at least one to two of these in order for us to to to to not only stay in the game but to kind of like you said to take a four-point lead against a team that all they did was kick field goals and that right there the kicking situation started the recipe I guess for a disaster Paul uh I wanted to talk to you about uh Daniel Jones versus the guy d uh wanted to trade up for Jaden Daniels here's a here's a week where we're talking we're not talking about Daniel Jones Daniel Jones played well didn't turn the ball over had two touchdowns uh got Malik neighbors involved early and often 18 targets he did enough to win the game and it just sucks for him Paul where when you still play well or do well enough giants still lose but the whole the whole neighbors to Daniel Daniel Jones to neighbors connection it was on it was on yesterday those guys got their work in yeah look um I thought too much so about Daniel first of all uh just not enough opportunities right they had what 56 plays on offense it's not enough it's not enough because and we'll get to it because the defense can't get the damn commanders off the field once not once not one defensive stop okay so that's an issue but yeah Daniel was good he was good um you know did not put the ball In Harm's Way um throws two touchdown passes um you know they tried a bunch of deep shots to neighbors that didn't go anywhere but he throwing um you know little crossers to neighbors um I think neighbors has five catches of 20 or more yards in the league already in two games that's the most in in the NFL so you know this is Malik neighbors so yeah Daniel was good and um you know to to to come out of a game with the Giants and say Daniel Jones had a 100 quarterback rating and and he played well enough to win and they don't win is really bad now about neighbors let me ask you something what do you think as a former receiver of about 18 Targets in a game I know you love me and I I I love it the fact that coach you're going to me with the ball 18 times but sheesh one can I get a gatorade can I get a IV and can someone else get some love here because I I mean 18 targets and I'm saying this as a former receiver you want the ball I'm full keesan Johnson just give me the darn Ball but you can give a couple you can give a couple of them to somebody else Paul like that's that that was it was it was great to see that connection going and great to see Malik neighbors make plays but I've also been in a receiver room with Plax Co Burris ammani tumer Steve Smith David Tyreek a lot of guys who are willing and able and can make plays uh I just I mean I guess full disclosure okay full disclosure Brandon see this is a micro cassette recorder right this is a digital recorder I just taped you there so full disclosure because you know what I have on tape that Brandon former NFL receiver said no Moss okay let's get somebody else involved and I get it you know what as I'm watching the game I say they could to run this kid into the ground I mean 50 out of the 56 offensive snaps that's fine but you know my problem is it was almost two onedimensional you know like high school we're going to throw the ball to Malik um Darius Leighton gets four targets um uh W Robinson gets four targets has a touchdown dein Singletary gets one target how about this Brandon Theo Johnson the rookie tight end has 44 offensive snaps zero zilch notada targets I mean come on where's the creativity even on the two-point conversions can we can we fake it here and and you know throw to that tight end you know the big 6 foot6 6' seven tight end on the other side who all of a sudden nobody's nobody's guarding because they didn't think it was coming I mean I just thought look I'm never gonna say don't throw the ball at neighbors you know what I mean he's terrific but you know what was a little fatigued he had a huge drop with two minutes to go monstrous and look it's going to happen I'm not damning a guy the hell or anything like that but you know Daniel makes an outrageously good throw he's sprinting to his right he throws the ball where it needs to be only Malik neighbors can get it he's got his feet in bounds he sets himself he Dives the ball goes off his hands now he took a lot of umbre you know he took a lot of um ownership of that a lot he said look guys like Dex and Isaiah Simmons and Kavon they're looking at me they they expecting me to make plays I let them down I let the team down so good for Malik neighbors for taking ownership and accountability of that but just maybe if there was one or two less targets maybe he's a little fresher to make that catch yeah we saw D throughout training camp the offense runs through him when they were having good days Malik neighbors was involved so I get that but now there's going to be teams out there that's like okay offense goes through this guy let's double him Darius Slayton three catches 33 yards he's destroyed the commanders before uh juanell two for 18 and then Jaylen hayatt who he is the big play Paul you think last year week two when Giants offense was kind of stalemate who sparked the offense down out in Arizona Jaylen hayatt with some big catches some big throws down the field so the evolution of this pass game I guess as Brian dable gets more comfortable with with Daniel Jones making fullfield reads I guess he made it easy for him all right if Malik is open get him the rock but going forward teams are going to start paying attention to that and teams are going to start doubling him and then you're going to have he's someone else is going to have to make plays within this offense but yeah I was surprised to I didn't even remember see Jaylen hayatt out there and when I spoke to him in the locker room this past Wednesday he said all the right things his confidence was up he I got to stay ready I got to stay ready but that's hard Paul that's hard two weeks in a row not I mean he had to drop on the one target one Target in two weeks that's that's that's it's going to start getting in your head as a receiver what am I not doing right then you start going to the coaches hey what's going on here that sort of thing you don't want to ever be second guessing yourself or doubting yourself but as a big Play Weapon like him he could really help this offense uh another thing that helped the offense Run game motor single T 95 yards and talking to a Germaine illuminor asking him how do you get him going he was talking about you know their doubles got to be right the double teams and and the the the Run blocking has to be better offensive line they they heard the memo like they got the message and they did pretty well like what do you think about the I mean the Run game was it was it was there they were chunk players in the Run game I was surprised Brandon how many times have we done this and we said oh Daniel what is he doing offensive line what are they doing there's none of that we're talking today there's literally none of that I mean I have nothing negative to say about the offensive line they allowed one sack um I thought the Run blocking was excellent Devon single ter making guys miss putting his foot in the ground jump Cuts spin moves um like I said it was just not enough opportunity because you know look let's face it the commanders have two good defensive tackles they're not a strong defense at all um I I'm not impressed with the defensive backfield uh their Edge rushers Are Not Great by any stretch there was not a lot of heat on Daniel so yeah the offensive line was fine the running game you know um dein single ter average is almost sixy a pop 95 yards um a touchdown terrific so you know it's it's really you know look when you score three touchdowns you're not supposed to have 18 points you're supposed to have 21 points I mean that that's that's the problem here you know and and it was so ridiculous as a Giants were driving and they're in clear field goal range on that Malik neighbors drop that was a fourth down play in a normal game they just kick a field goal and go and go ahead 2118 and they're probably well they may not win a game because the Giants haven't stopped the cold all day there um you know let's pivot to the defense okay because um you know you know I mean there's nothing to complain about with Daniel there's nothing to complain about the offensive line nothing with the running game um you know but there's stuff to complain about on defense here yeah I mean you get you have a game you give up no offensive touchdowns to give up seven field goals I feel as though that should be enough to win a game Paul that should be enough to win you disagree no offensive touchdowns like I'm I'm glad that the Giants offense was able to score three touchdowns no offensive touchdowns and you still you still somehow lose that game I do not I don't get I don't what's going on here like I do not get how this team is losing these games like I do you think the defense played well enough what grade would you give the defense yesterday the D I give him a d a d yeah look look um um the the Commander's punter is a guy named trese right I remember years ago oh no you know you know what I mean did you see him out there he's a really good punter did you see Tres out there or was he out on a couch with you hanging out you know what was he what was he doing they didn't punt once the commanders that is inexcusable yes the first part of your statement is is impressive they did not allow a touchdown the second part is the commanders had seven real possessions okay I'm not counting a kneel down at the end of the first have that doesn't count they had seven real possessions and had seven field goals every single series was virtually the same nine or 10 or 11 plays 60 or 70 yards field goal right I mean Austin Sebert they they signed him this week and he has seven field goals in a game so all every play that the commanders are running on offense is one play that Daniel Jones and Devin single ter and Malik neighbors are not running on offense for the Giants right so I am sorry I mean seven what were they uh what were they on the third down conversions um uh seven for 14 the commanders that's not good enough so I get it it was and you know what here's another thing Brandon the commanders aren't very good you know Jaden D is a young exciting rookie quarterback in his second game do you think if if they put the onus on jel Jaden Daniels to stand in the pocket and beat them throwing the ball that he would have done it I don't think so not at this stage of his development so you know also Brian Robinson would would would look look like um um Marshall Fork out there 133 yards 215 rushing yards allowed unacceptable so the defense there were penalties when when they didn't need to be they were just big plays right I mean big plays by Jaden Daniels they need 10 yards he throws for 11 they need 11 he runs for 12 on a run not good I mean it's not the worst defensive before I've ever seen certainly but you have to take into account the commanders are not a good offensive team what did they have five full start penalties I think four in the Red Zone I mean they they were killing themselves so you have to force a punt you have to give B the ball back to your offense at some points and they didn't do it it's not only about points yeah it was the third Downs that got me you know you're sitting there watching it where was the Spy was there no one spying the quarterback and it's I know you don't want to take a guy out of coverage to spy but that's his strength his legs are his strength he was there was times where you know he's just scrambling for the first downs I will say when it comes to the Run game though that's where I'm going to put it back on the offense though Paul has to be more pressure on Washington's offense to score points when you're head-to-head in the game or you're you're up you're going to continue to run the ball and that's why I say people should manage the expectations when it comes to Kayon and Brian Burns until the Giants offense puts pressure on the opponent's offense to kind of score and try and shoot it out to make them throw the ball so that's that the Run game thing it yes they have to Shore that up because if you're not going to stop the run on somebody that's I mean that's what you want to do in the NFL I know it's a passing league but shoot if you can get out of there with a W off the Run game but I give I I give Giants defense a C+ on it I really do think that it was enough to win I it was enough to win the game and it don't take it from me take it from Brian Burns okay here's his quote when we got somebody by the throat as a defense we kind of got to snap their necks off okay I mean like I said this is a this is a vulnerable Commander offense yeah you know what I mean I mean Jaden Daniels is a to to play against but he's not Randle Cunningham in his prime yet he just isn't so they did not cut their necks off look the the commanders forced one turnover right we mentioned motor single ter who had a terrific game he gets the ball punched out that's you know the Giants are going in for a score there you know he gots a 15 yard run and he fumbles the ball loses the ball you know when he gets punched out the Giants did not force any turnovers um I'm sorry I I I will I will um you know you gave him a C+ I gave him a d okay the grading is not too there but um I I just think um you have to look at who you're playing you know and it wasn't the Chiefs they were playing here so it's not like geez 21 points to the Chiefs I'll take it every day um the commanders hurt themselves and and you cannot allow every single possession to end up with points for the other team you can't do it you know this defense reminds me of when Patrick Graham was a defensive coordinator everyone was talking Ben but don't break Ben but don't break then you bring in wink Martell who's just blitzing just because it's Tuesday you know and now you go back to a b but don't break type defense but you got to I I just feel as though if you're going to have that type of defensive mentality the but don't break offense has to score points you got to get up in the 28 to 31 type uh to points to put some pressure uh on that on on the opponent's offense uh Paul what's next for these guys man what's on the schedule for the week as they get ready to to head out to Cleveland to play the Browns well to Sunday to Sunday week so um you know we'll get some players and Brian D on Monday players off Tuesday Wednesday is obviously Thursday Friday locker room and practice and um you know Brian D has a big job here now because um this was a tough loss you saw at the end of that game after that seventh field goal went through the upright he took his headset off and slammed it down to the ground because he knew he knew look the first week they were not in a game you know they got their heads handed to them and you don't slam your helmet because you just say okay they played better than us we weren't really you know ready to to to compete at the level we needed to and you move on this game was there they there with despite all those failings I mentioned about on defense You know despite not having a kicker the game was there for them and they didn't take it and in a season where winds are going to be hard to come by when you don't take it when you don't take it it's going to be very difficult I mean what did we say going into this year now the Vikings are two and0 right so maybe they're better than we think but we said first two games are against the Vikings at home and the commanders on the road the Giants are you know Daniel Jones is 51-1 against the Vikings I mean against the commanders he was three- one in FedEx Field which is is now Northwest Stadium this is set up for the Giants to have some success it was all there Daniel played great offensive line played well and uh they still don't win so um you know they got to stop this they got to stop with the why didn't you activate this guy what about this guy they got to have a cleaner operation from top to bottom that's all because um you know they have they have very little margin for error and that's what we showed yesterday is that they had no margin for error and um you know whatever could come back to bite them did real quick quick cuz there's a lot of 0 and2 teams in the NFL have they shown enough in these two games to where you feel like they can write the ship and go on some sort of run no not right now I mean I'm not GNA say you know right that the season's over um but no I mean you know it it's become look in 2022 right Brian dable and the Joe Shane regime came in and and and right away there was six And1 and it was a sense wow it's not like everything that bad happens to this team you know we get some breaks we you know as fans are thinking we get some breaks you know our coach gives us an advantage you know we we we go for the touchdown instead of the field goal and it works you know you know uh uh you know we Blitz and it hits um you know the other team misses a field goal or commits a stupid penalty you know things things kind of are not conspiring against us and last year there was there was a lot of that with all the injuries and the three quarterbacks and this year it's kind of the same feeling where um you know you're just waiting for something bad to happen you know if there if there's a a good sack on on second down you're waiting for something bad to happen on third down so no at this point I'm not willing to say that they can figure it out they could they could get things right you know at the very best this is a marginal team that should challenge for 500 now after 0 and2 they look like they're less than that and look Cleveland is a vulnerable team but it's on the road it's in the dog pound the Giants are certainly not favored they're a one touchdown Underdog so you know can they figure out a way to win the game you know it's not it's not going to Dallas you know so they have they have the the the Browns and then four days later they have the Cowboys at home so after that cowboy game on that Thursday night are they are they one and three are they two- two I really doubt they're two and two are they 0 and four you know that's going to tell us about the direction of this team well we got the questions only this team can uh answer these questions for Brandon London and Paul Schwarz thanks for joining us